Lifeguard shortage threatens to dash summer splash, city warns

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This article was published 07/07/2022 (901 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is struggling against staffing shortages and theft to keep public pools from circling the drain.

In an email to the Free Press, the city revealed it is facing a shortage of certified lifeguards and having difficulty recruiting new attendants to watch over its 53 wading pools.

The shortage could result in less playtime for pool patrons.

“While we aim to maintain pre-COVID service levels… some hours of service may be impacted, and the number of open wading pools open may continue to be reduced due to staff shortages,” a spokesman said, attributing the issue to two years of pandemic-induced cancellations, which prevented staff lifeguard certifications.

But the city is, so far, managing to keep most of the facilities open. According to the city’s website, all but six of the wading pools were open Friday, as were outdoor pools and splash pads.

“It’s very important to be able to get them out, cool down, and interact with other kids their age,” Samantha Cummins said as she watched her three-year-old daughter Callen scream and splash with glee.

Cummins sat on the edge of an Elmwood Park wading pool with her toes in the water and her one-year-old son Dawson on her lap.

She went to the wading pool with the children and their grandmother.

“Wading pools are less crowded and more geared toward the wee ones as well,” said the grandmother, who identified herself only as “Nana.”

In May, thieves stole copper piping from the Henderson Highway pool. City staff did repairs and the facility opened on schedule last weekend.

“Copper thefts have long been an issue,” a Winnipeg Police Service spokesman said, adding no arrests have been made.

The city spokesman said there have been reports of possible copper thefts from other public pools, but could not provide any details.

The rash of property theft in the city is “a tragedy,” Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said.

“It’s an attack on the community,” said Lamont, the MLA for St. Boniface. “It’s not like the City of Winnipeg has overflowing coffers to pay for this… it’s disruptive, expensive and scary.”

Lamont introduced a bill to regulate scrap metal sales across Manitoba in 2020 but it didn’t receive any support from either the governing Tories or the NDP. Premier Heather Stefanson’s Progressive Conservative government has now tabled its own legislation, essentially a replica of what Lamont proposed, he said.

Bill 9, the Scrap Metal Act, will come into force July 18, and when it does, all scrap metal dealers will be required to track transactions. People selling scrap metal will also have to provide identification and account for where they got the items.

Among other things, the regulations will apply to selling copper wire and metals from catalytic converters.

The City of Winnipeg already imposes similar restrictions through the Doing Business in Winnipeg By-law, which it amended in 2021 to include scrap metal dealers.

Provincially regulating scrap metal sales will prevent thieves from selling stolen goods to dealers outside of Winnipeg, Lamont said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca